I first came to this site 2 years ago when a shockingly high PSA started me on the road to.... well, I'm not sure exactly what, and that's the problem. I originally went to the urologist 2 years ago when I suddenly saw black urine emerging, and I naturally suspected it was blood and represented a recurrence of bladder cancer, which I'd had in 2003. But then my urologist was distracted by my PSA, over 13. Since then, while dealing with the bladder issues, I've pursued the prostate matter. I've had two biopsies, many CT scans, several MRIs, even a PET scan/MRI that I had to pay big bucks for since Medicare only pays after a definitive diagnosis of prostate cancer entitles you to find out if it has metastasized. The biopsies found only an ASAP (considered a pre-cancerous lesion) and no definitive cancer. And the MRI categorized me as a PIRADS 3. Yet, by another measure, whose name I'm forgetting, I had a very high probability of clinically-significant cancer.
But what I wanted to ask about was my latest effort to figure out what's going on with my prostate. I had read about a relatively new test, created by the Cleveland Clinic, and performed by an offshoot, Cleveland Diagnostics, called the IsoPSA. Unlike all previous tests involving the PSA, it doesn't quantify it but rather looks at the PSA molecule structurally. Evidently there are molecular markers that indicate whether a particular PSA variety (called an isoform) comes from normal prostate tissue or clinically-significant cancer tissue. They put the PSA into a specially-prepared test tube which has the normal isoforms go to one end and the clinically-significant cancer isoforms go to the other end. They then measure the ratio of the 'bad' isoforms to the 'good' and the number that results (the ratio of the two) is your score. A score of 6 or over represents a greater than 50% chance of cancer, and a lower score indicates not that you're out of the woods exactly but, if the score is low enough, that you have a much smaller chance of clinically-significant cancer. My score was 5.1, which I think is considered good. Strangely, 49 of the 50 states have authorized this test, but my state, New York, has not yet done so, so I had to jump through multiple hoops to get it in Connecticut. But though the kind of low score I got on it reassures me somewhat, I'm still feeling I may be leaving something undone. My favorite line in 'The Trial' by Kafka is in the parable, when the person seeking admittance to the law pays a bribe to the gatekeeper, who takes the bribe but says it won't affect his behavior at all-- that he's accepting it just to keep the seeker from feeling he's left something undone. I'm feeling I may be leaving something undone while clinically-significant prostate cancer is developing in my body-- and it's a horrible feeling!
So what is the forum's analysis of my situation? And if I'm leaving something undone, what may that be?